Supply chain workplace safety improvements — results by region

Supply chain risk contractor management firm, Avetta, has examined 10 years’ worth of hundreds of thousands of safety data points from within its supply chain risk management platform of 87000 suppliers, and has produced a global report on safety incidents. It finds, using its own data as a benchmark, that overall firms using cloud-based supply chain risk technologies can reduce the number of safety incidents and lost work days by as much as 55% compared to industry averages. Some have seen a 7% to 12% reduction in workplace safety incidents year-on-year for up to 10 years.

It’s a plug of course for the firm’s own Avetta Connect™ Platform, but the premise holds that if you can measure it, you can improve it. “When clients and suppliers are held to a higher safety standard and have the right technology to track performance, they achieve those outcomes across the supply chain,” said Arshad Matin, Avetta President and Chief Executive Officer. “Making those corrections decreases expenses, reduces accidents and protects brands, leading to lives saved.”

What’s interesting about the analysis is that it reports results by region, and has made available graphs showing safety improvements for each – so for example:

In the United States — suppliers who participate in prequalification measurements see about a 20% reduction in Total Recordable Incidents Rate (TRIR), Days Away, Restricted or Transferred (DART is a safety metric used by the US Occupational Safety and Health Administration to track workplace injuries and illnesses) and Lost Workday Case Rate (LWCR – a similar calculation using the number of cases with lost workdays) compared to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) averages. Those companies that utilize supplier audits as part of safety programs see as much as a 52% reduction in those measures.

The longer companies use a supply chain risk management system, the more workplace safety incidents are reduced. Over the past 10 years, Avetta customers’ suppliers have reduced TRIR, DART and LWCR an average of 7% to 8% year-on-year.

In the European Union — clients utilizing technology for prequalification for their suppliers reduced Accident Frequency Rate (AFR) by 21% and reduced the Incidence Rate (IR) by 50%.

Accident Frequency Rate (AFR) is the number of accidents per 1 million total hours.

Incidence Rate (IR) is the number of fatal accidents and more than 3 days’ absence per 100,000 employees (ESAW).

The regional graphs on safely improvements can be accessed via Dropbox, where you can also find results for Australia, Latin America, Mexico, Canada and APAC.

Earlier this year Spend Matters talked to Avetta’s CEO to learn more about how the platform works. He told us: “it’s built from scratch, is SaaS-based, and is equipped with the most modern tech available today. It lays the foundations for clients, suppliers, contractors and vendors to improve outcomes related to safety, procurement practices and sustainability, powered by predictive data analytics. But importantly, it is designed so that customers can create value on top of that through partners or on their own.”

Richard Parke, Avetta’s senior vice president of supplier services, also told us that: “new regulations across the globe continue to shift responsibility from contractors to the companies that hire them, as a result, companies need to be vigilant, now more than ever, when they bring a temporary worker into a project. Anything that affects that worker or vendor’s ability to complete the project has the ability to affect the company as well, financial instability included. A thorough and robust supplier prequalification solution helps companies in this area get the visibility they need to make sustainable and safe business decisions.”

In its line of business of workplace safety, Avetta is also preoccupied with workplace mental health, mindfulness, sustainability and diversity. You can access resources and best practice advice on each of those here.